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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Spotlight on October Books

This month we are featuring 36 books. There are more than twice as many new sff and related releases this month in traditional publishing not to speak of the countless indies from Amazon and Smashwords but we are limiting ourselves to books that will be reviewed here or are similar with such. For the full schedule of October 2012 titles known to us, you can consult the Upcoming Releases page.

The release dates are US unless marked otherwise, though for books released in the UK and US in the same month but on different dates we generally use the US  date and they are first edition unless noted differently. The dates are on a best known basis so they are not guaranteed; same about the edition information. 

Since information sometimes is out of date even in the Amazon links we use for listings, books get delayed or sometimes even released earlier, we would truly appreciate if you would send us an email about any listing with incorrect information. 

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Mage's Bloodby David Hair. Release Date: October 1, 2012. Published by Jo Fletcher Books. (FAN).
The Tainted City by Courtney Schafer. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Night Shade Books. (FAN).
Daughter of the Sword” by Steve Bein. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Roc. (FAN).
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Ace. (FAN/MISC).
Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Thomas Dunne Books. (HF / US Debut).
Skarlet by Thomas Emson. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by St. Martin’s Griffin. (HF / US Debut).

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Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Roc. (UF).
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Tor. (FAN).
Fire Season by David Weber & Jane Lindskold. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Baen. (YA).
London Eye by Tim Lebbon. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Pyr. (YA).
Quantum Coin by E.C. Myers. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Pyr. (YA).
The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry. (YA).

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The Second Shipby Richard Phillips. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by 47North. (SF).
The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks. Release Date:  October 9, 2012. Published by Orbit. (SF).
Harvest by William Horwood. UK Release Date: October 11, 2012. Published by Pan Macmillan. (FAN).
The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Release Date: October 16, 2012. Published by Ballantine. (SF/MISC).
The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski. Release Date: October 16, 2012. Published by Pantheon. (WEIRD/MISC).
The Secret Keeperby Kate Morton. Release Date: October 16, 2012. Published by Atria. (MISC).

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“Swimming Home” by Deborah Levy. Release Date: October 16, 2012. Published by Bloomsbury. (MISC).
Zoo Time by Howard Jacobson. Release Date: October 16, 2012. Published by Bloomsbury. (MISC).
The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove. Release Date: October 18, 2012. Published by Corvus. (SF).
The King’s Assassin by Stephen Deas. UK Release Date: October 18, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (YA).
“Tom Swan and the Head of St. George: Part 3 Constantinople” by Christian Cameron. Release Date:  October 18, 2012. Published by Orion. (SERIAL/MISC).
Red Country” by Joe Abercrombie. UK Release Date: October 18, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (FAN).

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Luminous Chaos by Jean-Christophe Valtat. Release Date: October 23, 2012. Published by Melville House. (STPK).
The Art Forger by B.A Shapiro. Release Date: October 23, 2012. Published by Algonquin Books. (MISC).
Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw. Release Date: October 23, 2012. Published by Dark Horse. (MISC).
The Night of the Swarm by Robert V.S. Redick. UK Release Date: October 25, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (FAN).
The Red Knight by Miles Cameron. UK Release Date: October 25, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (FAN).
Citadel by Kate Mosse. UK Release Date: October 25, 2012. Published by Orion. (MISC).

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 “The Death of Light by Peter Crowther. Release Date: October 30, 2012. Published by Angry Robot. (SF).
Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom. Release Date: October 30, 2012. Published by Harper Voyager. (FAN).
Ghost Planetby Sharon Lynn Fisher. Release Date: October 30, 2012. Published by Tor. (SF). 
Black Flower by Young-ha Kim. Release Date: October 30, 2012. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (MISC).
The Lands of Ice & Fire by George R.R. Martin. Release Date: October 30, 2012. Published by Bantam. (MAPS/MISC).
The Tangled Bridge by Rhodi Hawk. Release Date: October 30, 2012. Published by Tor. (MISC).


7 comments:

Sean said...

Thanks for this, I often find these spotlight posts very handy for picking up new books.

Just a clarification on an acronym used: HF. In this context it usually stands for High Fantasy. But after reading the descriptions of the books, it seems you had rather horror in mind? Or maybe I got the wrong impression from the blurb.

-Sean.

Liviu said...

yes, HF stands for Horror Fiction though in a rush I also think of it as High Fantasy - Robert picked most of the acronyms as he updates the Upcoming Releases Page from where I c/p most of the titles and I kept his notations to avoid confusion as I am sure I will forget to change some if I decide to change them.

There is an explanation there and I may add it in the Next Spotlight.

http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/p/upcoming-releases.html

Thank you for the comment.

Liviu said...

As books of main interest and upcoming reviews: reading or read and you can find initial raw thoughts on Goodreads: Mage's Blood, Hydrogen Sonata, The Secret Keeper, Zoo Time, Swimming Home (already rv)
I also read Fire season and as it is way too YA for my tastes, the Goodreads thoughts is the most time I will spend talking about it.

As possibles (started, depending on time/energy/mood): The Art Forger and Black Flower, while The Tainted City and Three Parts Dead (both started and ok'ish but not that high a priority for me) will probably be rv by Mihir

Huge asap's: The Twelve, Night of the Swarm, Luminous Chaos, Red Country, Red Knight, The King's Assassin, Tom Swan #3 (read and put short thoughts for parts 1/2) and of course I plan to get Lands of Ice and Fire

Despite being a huge fan of J. Carey's Kushiel and Naamah series, and liking quite well the Santa Olivia duology too, the excerpt read from Dark Currents just made me cringe so no plans to touch that

Other than that I will monitor the mainstream releases as they hit stores and see if/what surprises I will find like say the charming recent Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the world

Mori Lii said...

Thank you for featuring these books. I will definitely check out some of these books in the near future.

http://brittneycanna.blogspot.com/

Sean said...

I didn't know about the list maintained by Robert. It's good to have a frame of reference in this abbreviation-mad world. Thanks.

-Sean.

Anonymous said...

I miss these spotlights. I haven't been able to keep up with the fantasy world as much, and these spotlights used to help me find books to read. Why were they stopped? You might have answered this already, or it has to do with your workload increasing, but I've been out of the loop.

Cindy said...

Spotlights were stopped due to the amount of time it took to create, upload, and research them. In some cases it could take up to 5-8 hours.

The reviewers' have had an increase in personal/professional workloads, and as FBC is a hobby - some things had to be put on a backburner.

Spotlights may be brought back in the future, but at the moment they are on hold.

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